Cleaning Grill Grates

[dale2242]

Having bought a pellet grill and trying a number of recipes I want to keep the grates clean.
My Pit Boss has ceramic coated grates.
If I clean them after every use they clean fairly easy with steel wool soap pads but when the rubs get burnt on it becomes quite a chore.
There must be a spray on type cleaner that makes the chore much easier.
What are your suggestions?

[JimB..]

I expect that spray on oven cleaner would do the trick.

[Pipefitter]

I soak my ceramic coated grates in the laundry tub in hot water and Dawn dish soap for a couple hours, they wipe off with a dish cloth easily.

[Half Dog]

Following. Same situation here.

[MaryB]

I just use the mesh type grill cleaner. If some rub or sauce stays burned on no big deal. You can also run the grill to max(mine will hot 500 degrees) and burn it off.

[Petrol & Powder]

I've owned enough grills over the years to fill a large showroom. Cheap ones, expensive ones, middle of the road ones - I think they are all bound to fail, it's just a matter of when.

Porcelain coated grates hold up OK until they get a chip. They sort of clean up with just soap and water and frankly, that's probably good enough.
Stainless grates hold up well but you have to coat them with cooking oil or the food will stick badly.
Cast iron grates are my favorite types. They also need some cooking oil to keep the food from sticking but they are by far the most trouble free. A little scraping/brushing and some heat and they are good to go.

[dale2242]

I used Easy-Off oven cleaner on the porcelain coated grates of my Pit Boss.
I let them set for 10-15 minutes after spraying a pretty heavy coat of the cleaner.
Brushing got most of the crust and finished up with steel wool soap pads and a good rinse....dale

[sierra1911]

I soak my smoker racks overnight with Ajax Triple Action Orange dish soap. It contains ammonia and works better for me than Dawn. A big bottle is about 5 bucks at Home Depot.

[djryan13]

If you believe the infomercial, steam cleaning gets them clean quickly. Anyone try to see? The steam cleaner I used to steam out the cosmoline from a couple Nagants broke else I would test...

[clum553946]

I soak my ceramic coated grates in the laundry tub in hot water and Dawn dish soap for a couple hours, they wipe off with a dish cloth easily.

I do this, then run them thru the dishwasher set on high heat

[dale2242]

Pipefitter, I tried soaking my ceramic coated grates in water and dawn soap.
I did it without doing the burn off as Pit Boss suggested.
I am discovering that the burn off procedure is more of a burn on than burn off.
If the grates don`t get hot enough to turn the mess into ash it makes a hard carbon crust that is hard to remove.
The grates cleaned up easily after soaking for a while in soap and water.
The clean grates will go into the grill and i will do a burn off to sanitize them and the heat shield.

[Finster101]

If it don't burn off or scrape off it stays. Never had a problem. I'm cooking over fire. Why complicate it?

[Chris S]

I agree with Finster, why clean them? Your just gonna heat them up good next time. Give them a good wire brushing then. And the temp will kill anything you might be afraid of on them.

I think cast iron is best. Everything else just "changes" somehow.

Chris

[MaryB]

The carbon build up is non stick for your grates! All I do is scrape off with one of those sponge type grill cleaners, if needed knock off the big chunks that hang underneath. Preheat your grate, it kills any bacteria and helps keep food from sticking!

[georgerkahn]

I agree -- and do as -- posted by Finster101, Chris S, and MaryB! Two notes -- 1st, a huge copy/agree with suggestion from MaryB to never ever put items to be cooked on a grill which is not already at cooking temperature! Of special/particular importance is the killing of bacteria and any cooties which really can hurt you, if you do not. 2nd -- not an original thought on my behalf -- I've heard enough warnings vis folks who use either steel wool type cleaners and or wire brushes -- where a teeny tiny bit or two or three from cleaner stays in grill -- and then gets served with the food you've just cooked on the "clean" grill -- to share this warning. I *used* to use a wire brush... no more, since.
Happy grilling!
geo

[edp2k]

If you really want to clean your grates,
soak them for a couple days in a container (e.g. plastic tote)
with a water and lye solution. This is the lye used to clean drains.
Mix per directions on the lye container.
I'm SWAGing a teaspoon per gallon of water.
The solution will dissolve all organic material (i.e. grease, oil, flesh [human and animal]).

Don't get any lye+water solution on your clothes/skin/eyes or you will get a caustic burn.
It would be a wise idea to wear safety glasses around the lye and
keep the container outside.
Hose off any lye solution splashes immediately.

After a couple days remove the grates from the lye solution (wear rubber gloves) and
hose them off, preferably outside with plenty of water.

Easy-peasy, no labor, squeaky clean grates.

Or, concurring with above comments,
don't clean the grates and preheat the grill to HOT before putting food on it.

[gbrown]

I've owned enough grills over the years to fill a large showroom. Cheap ones, expensive ones, middle of the road ones - I think they are all bound to fail, it's just a matter of when.

Porcelain coated grates hold up OK until they get a chip. They sort of clean up with just soap and water and frankly, that's probably good enough.
Stainless grates hold up well but you have to coat them with cooking oil or the food will stick badly.
Cast iron grates are my favorite types. They also need some cooking oil to keep the food from sticking but they are by far the most trouble free. A little scraping/brushing and some heat and they are good to go.

+1 on this. Been there, done that.

[Lloyd Smale]

I soak them in hot water with TSP added. its a grease cutting cleaner that used mostly to take nicotine stains off of walls before you paint. I don't do it very often though. If you just spray them with pam before you cook it eliminates most of the sticking.

[dale2242]

I have been spraying them with Pam before each use.
Soaking them over night in water with dawn makes cleanup pretty easy.
I never thought of TSP.
I will give it a try.
How much are you using in each batch?

[Lloyd Smale]

I use half again as much as the box directions say to in hot water. If your grates are Teflon coated I probably wouldn't use it. I don't know for sure but it may damage the coating.